Tech To Host '91 Metro Tourney

Sidelines

January 05, 1988

Virginia Tech and the City of Roanoke will host the 1991 Metro Conference basketball tournament, a school spokesman said Wednesday.

Officials will announce the deal at a news conference Friday morning at the Roanoke Civic Center, a 10,000-capacity facility where the tournament will be played, said Jack Williams, Tech's director of media relations.

The Metro requires that a host school must guarantee $600,000 in tournament receipts. Most of the money comes from ticket sales, and if there is a shortfall, the host school will be required to make up the difference.

The civic center will be the smallest building to host the Metro tournament, which has been played in Louisville's Freedom Hall, with a capacity of 18,865, four of the past five years.

In 1984, the Metro tournament was hosted by Memphis State in the 11,200-seat Mid-South Coliseum. The only other Metro school to act as host was Cincinnati, which held the 1978 and '83 tournaments in Riverfront Coliseum (10,400).

University and city officials had met several times since Tech Athletic Director David Braine said in May that Roanoke might be the site for the 1991 event. Braine had considered hosting the tournament at Cassell Coliseum on the Tech campus, but ruled that out because of insufficient accommodations.

Tech was scheduled to have the event in 1991 because the Metro rotates the site to each of the teams in alphabetical order.

Georgia running backs Tim Worley and Keith Henderson announced they will apply for the National Football League draft, forgoing their final year of eligibility with the Bulldogs.

Both players were redshirted in 1987 after being dismissed from school for academic reasons. Since their freshman class graduates in the spring, they are eligible to apply for the April draft.

A Kentucky State University basketball player has been suspended from the Thorobreds team pending an investigation into a possible violation of NCAA rules, according to a published report.

The State Journal reported that senior guard Thor Shaffer has not played since a Dec. 10 game against Syracuse. KSU spokesman Joe Burgess confirmed that Shaffer's suspension was due to a possible rules violation, but wasn't specific.

Shaffer's mother, Dawne Shaffer, told the newspaper the matter may involve a plane ticket bought for her son by former KSU Coach Paul Peck last winter.

The Quarterback Club of Washington, D.C., announced that UCLA's Troy Aikman is the 1988 National College Quarterback of the Year.Boxing:Tomas Molinares is suffering from a severe depression and will not be able to defend his World Boxing Association welterweight title against American Mark Breland on Feb. 4, his manager, Willliam Champs, said.

Dr. Jairo Palacios, Molinares' physician, who has been treating the Colombian fighter since Dec. 31, said Molinares' condition will prevent him from training for the fight and that Molinares will be forced to rest for aproximately three months. Palacios did not elaborate about the origins of Molinares' condition.

Donny Lalonde of Canada will not fight for the vacant World Boxing Council light-heavyweight title he lost last November, but will have the first shot at a new champion sometime this spring.

WBC president Jose Sulaiman confirmed that Tony Willis of Chicago and Dennis Andries of Guyana, ranked second and third, respectively, will fight late next month for the light-heavyweight crown vacated by Sugar Ray Leonard.

The WBA named junior heavyweight Evander Holyfield of the United States as its Fighter of the Year for 1988.NBA:Magic Johnson, the all-time leader in assists in All-Star competition, leads the vote-getters in fan balloting for the starting Western Conference team for this season's NBA All-Star Game.

The Los Angeles Lakers' guard, who has 111 assists in eight All-Star games, has received 248,468.

Portland's Clyde Drexler, with 116,837 votes, was second among the West guards.

Denver's Alex English, a seven-time All-Star, was the leader among West forwards with 134,467 votes, followed by Utah's Karl Malone, with 111,574.

At center, Akeem Olajuwon of the Houston Rockets was the leader with 166,832 votes.

Lenny Wilkens, whose Cleveland Cavaliers have the best record in the NBA, was named Wednesday the league's Coach of the Month for December.

In December, the Cavaliers, leaders of the Central Division with a 22-5 record, were 13-2 - the most victories ever for Cleveland in one month.Baseball:St. Louis pitcher Danny Cox, who missed much of the 1988 season due to elbow problems, has agreed to a maximum 20 percent pay cut with incentives that would allow him to exceed last year's salary.

Cox, who compiled a 3-8 record in only 13 starts last season, signed a one-year contract for a base salary of $600,-000, compared to $750,000 in 1988.